Ray Bradbury is a famous writer, fiction legend, poet. His works capture the liveliness and unusual lightness of people around the world. Everyone knows his most popular novel “451 degrees Fahrenheit”, his short stories, including “Vacations”, which are included in a children's reader for grades 5-7.
History of creation
Ray Bradbury began writing short stories between the ages of 12-13. Even then, he began to publish them in school publications. They were interesting to young readers, and then the author realized that he would find a calling in literature. Even as an adult, he continued to work on small prose, compiling collections of novels and even single works (for example, The Martian Chronicles).
The story "Vacation" was written in 1949. At that time, the writer was already 29 years old, he was a recognized writer. But the output of the work did not become a high-profile event. In 1964, he released a collection of "Mechanisms of Joy", which included "Vacation". And then critics and journalists started talking about the story.
Genre, direction
The work is written in the genre of "story", his literary credo is fiction. All works of Ray Bradbury have a philosophical direction. After reading any of his books, even if it is a short story of 10 pages, a person has many thoughts regarding what the author had in mind. His ideas do not always lie on the surface.
The writer pleases the audience with his harmonious style, unusual plot and colorful descriptions, influencing our consciousness, forcing our brain to think about the world unusual for us and to present it in all details.
Essence
The essence of the story is to convey the consequences of seemingly ordinary, but at the same time destructive dreams, if they come true. Having returned from the boring work, the man is burning with the desire to fall asleep and wake up in a world where, besides him and his household, there is nobody. As if by magic, streets, cities and countries are empty, and the happy couple remain “alone”. But their cozy solitude soon turns into an uncontrollable sluggish nightmare.
We all sometimes experience difficult days when we want to be alone in the whole world, so long as difficult times end and the long-awaited rest comes. But we must understand that this is only a period of life and that, being alone, we will inevitably want to return everything to its place. Also, do not forget that our desires can affect others. Not everyone wants what we want.
The main characters and their characteristics
There are only three acting characters in the work. Each of them is the main character. A boy of 7-8 years old, his mother and father. The author does not give names to his characters and does not say anything specific about the type of activity of the boy’s parents.
- Dad - a working man, appears in this work in the role of that very selfish person who thinks only of his tiredness. It was he who wished to live in solitude, so that there were no people left in the whole world except his family.
- Mum - A simple woman, contains a family, empathizes with her husband and agrees with his feelings. In the story, it is a kind of softening element between father and son. Let's just say that she is the neutral side, while the son is angry with his parents and accuses them of having made his world so alone.
- Boy - a playful child who is physically and morally difficult to get used to the devastation of the Earth. He loses mutual understanding with his family, closes in himself and his grief. He is bored and dreary without people. At the end of the story, the boy throws a letter bottle into the sea. Most likely he made a wish - to return everything as it was. This gives vague hope that the next morning they will wake up in a noisy world filled with people. Their vacation is finally over.
Themes and Issues
- The author reveals selfishness problem in its history. The father wished to remain alone in the world with his family in order to arrange the longest vacation. But he did not think at all what such a desire could lead to. He did not think about how something like this would affect his son, and indeed, how the three of them could live on without people around. But in fact, it’s quite difficult to blame the father for not thinking about the consequences, because not every day our utterances from fatigue and, possibly, despair of desire come true. The man could not know that the dream would come true, because, in fact, this does not happen.
- Ray Bradbury also affects theme of loneliness. Again and again, the author makes us understand that our existence is impossible without people, without a city as a living organism with its constant changes. Man is a social being. Having only two close people nearby and not being able to contact others is a difficult test. It can lead to madness.
- The problem of fathers and children also makes itself felt: the child perceives the world differently, for him the loss of communication is a tragedy, the scale of which is hard to imagine. He was just beginning to learn his surroundings, when suddenly his father’s accidental whim took everything from him. Parents, on the other hand, are fed up with social contacts, they have already seen and learned a lot, it’s not so painful for them to remain isolated from everyone else. Therefore, two generations cannot understand each other.
Meaning
In the work, everyone will find their own meaning. Be careful with your desires - as one of the options. All of us quite often dream: “If only there were no people in the world, only me and beloved people, we would rest from worries and be happy.” This story clearly shows us the consequences of such rash desires. It is worth being careful in your thoughts and dreams, because sometimes the universe can hear and fulfill them. And she doesn’t care that this is not exactly what you wanted.
Appreciating what you have is another idea of the author. Sometimes we get tired of the routine and what is around. We get tired of the world and its foundations, of people nearby, but in fact it is in this mechanism of everydayness and unpredictability that all value lies. The family was completely alone in the world, at first they like it, but then comes the realization that an irreparable mistake has been made. A person needs the noise of the city, the conversations and the energy that the environment provides. Not only close, but in general. This is something we should never lose.
You cannot run away from your problems - this is the main idea of the story. The boy’s parents, or rather his father, wanted to escape from his worries. They did not know what might happen. And too late they realized that it was better to have problems, to be able to fix them, than to be in a social blockade. Vacations should not last forever.
